Page 37 of Book Club Confidential

“Hey,” Hallie said. “Are you running again?”

“Yeah.”

“Don’t you usually run before work, not after?” she asked.

“I’m just trying to clear my head,” Tessa admitted. “I overheard some Gen Z coworkers call me an elder millennial this afternoon. I’m not an elder anything. I’m thirty-five years old. I thought I looked closer to twenty-five.”

Her friends responded with soft understanding groans.

“My new gyno is a Gen Z,” Hallie said. “Her name’s Pearl—not Doctor Anything, just Pearl. She called me dawg and barely looked up from her tablet before the exam.”

“Maybe she was an iPad kid.”

“That’s Gen Alpha,” Kate said.

Hallie shrugged. “Whatever. I thought people in that generation should be learning to drive, not swabbing my cervix.”

Tessa’s phone announced an incoming call, and she slowed to check the caller ID. “My dad’s calling,” she said. “I’ve got to go. Pick a time to meet for book club and text me?”

“Yeah,” Hallie said.

“Sounds good,” Kate agreed. “Sorry I was mean.”

Tessa smiled. “I love you guys.”

“Love you!” they sang and disconnected.

Tessa accepted the incoming call with hope that Devin had already left town. It’d been nearly a week since her dad invited her for family dinner, and soon she’d have to set a date. “Hey, Dad.”

“Hey, hon,” he said. “How’s everything going?”

“Good.” She returned to a walk, ignoring the dread pooling in her core. “You?”

“I’d be better if we could get our family dinner on the schedule this week,” he said. “It’d mean a lot to me, having you and Devin together at my table again.”

Tessa paused to let her head drop forward a moment, then raised her chin and began moving once more. Two blocks and she’d be home, then she could shower and wash this conversation down the drain, along with the sweat from her sticky skin.

“I know you and Devin have your differences, but he loves you, and he’d like to work on building a friendship. He hasn’t had an easy time, you know.”

“Oh, I know,” Tessa assured. Her dad reminded her of Devin’s struggles every chance he got.

Devin lost his mother too young, and he hadn’t known his biological father, but her dad had done anything and everything he could to fill both voids. And he did so with gusto.

Tessa was four years older, and she’d grown up fast in the face of loss. She learned to behave and be helpful, not a burden. Her dad lost a wife and gained a grieving son. There wasn’t room for her to make things more complicated or difficult than they already were.

“Tess,” her dad said, his voice chiding but patient. “For me? Please?”

Her shoulders drooped as his words pierced her heart. “Okay,” she said. “Anything for you.” And she meant it with every fiber of her being.

“Excellent!” The cheer in his tone pulled a smile across her face. “I’ll make rigatoni and fried chicken. Your favorites.”

“Sounds delicious.”

“It will be,” he promised. “You won’t regret this. Making up with your brother is only going to improve your life. Leaving things to fester is unhealthy. You know? Change is good.”

“Okay,” she said, unable to refuse him. Doing so would break both their hearts.

If she was right, and their family dinner turned out to be the catastrophic shit show she predicted, at least her friends would be there to help her through the aftermath.